Every day we use our hands to grasp, grip, squeeze and pinch a variety of objects. A weak grip can affect many daily activities such as shaking hands, swinging a baseball bat, opening a vacuum-sealed jar of pickles or using a walker. Improving your grip strength doesn’t mean spending hours at the gym working on special equipment. Many exercises can be done in the comfort of your own home with inexpensive training aids.

Tennis Ball Squeeze

A squishy tennis ball that has lost its bounce makes a great grip-strengthening training aid. The Physio Advisor website recommends performing 10 squeezes three times each day. To perform this exercise, hold the ball in your palm and wrap your fingers around it. Squeeze the ball as hard as you can and hold the squeeze for five seconds. Repeat, rest and perform the exercise with the opposite hand. If you don't have a tennis ball, a small, soft rubber ball works just as well.

Theraputty Exercises

The Illinois Neurological Institute suggests using putty to perform a variety of exercises to help strengthen your grip and hand. The full grip exercise starts by placing the putty in your palm. Using a kneading motion, squeeze the putty against your palm with your fingers. Continue to roll the putty around in your hand as you apply pressure with your fingertips. Repeat with the opposite hand. The ability to pinch and grip objects with your fingers can be improved with the finger spread putty exercise. Flatten out the putty on a flat surface. Make it thick and 4 inches in diameter. Collapse your palm and bring your fingertips together. Place your fingers into the center of the putty. While keeping your fingers in the putty, spread them out to the edges of the putty with as much as force as you can. Flatten out the putty and reverse the movement. Start at the edges and bring your fingertips together to the center of the putty. Repeat with the opposite hand.

Towel Twisting

The towel twisting exercise involves water and is best performed over a bathtub or outdoors. Hold a medium-sized towel under the tap or submerge it into a bucket of water. Grasp each end of the towel and twist the towel ends in opposite directions, twisting one end at a time. For example, twist the towel's right end forward with your right hand and then twist the left end backward with your left hand. Continue until you have wrung out as much water as possible. Wet the towel and wring out the water reversing the direction of your hands.

Newspaper Balls

Instead of putting the Sunday newspaper in the recycle pile after you read it, use it to strengthen your grip. Tear each page in half and again into quarters. Grasp a section with your right hand and wad it up into as tight a ball as possible. Repeat the process with your left hand. Continue to make balls and alternate hands until there are no sheets of newspaper left.